


The 5 Times Nile Asked to Help with Dinner and the One Time She Didn’t Have To

by Watthefuckidk



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Fluff, Found Family, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:41:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25337044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Watthefuckidk/pseuds/Watthefuckidk
Summary: Nile learns her new family's love language, turns out food can have a lot of meaning.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 33
Kudos: 1248





	The 5 Times Nile Asked to Help with Dinner and the One Time She Didn’t Have To

**Author's Note:**

> First fic! Let me know what y'all think:)
> 
> May thanks to fruityUndertaker for beta-ing this at midnight

1  
\---

It didn’t take long for Nile to learn that Joe was the superior cook of the group. Nicky, likely from centuries of assisting Joe, wasn’t half bad either. Andy was at a complete loss and kept away from the kitchen aside from her enthusiastic taste testing. Nile had always been more of a baker than a cook, and was happy to leave the kitchen to the men. 

For the first few months after discovering Nile, the group stayed together in the flat that served as their London safehouse. Nile got the feeling that they normally would have separated earlier, but between giving her a crash course in being immortal, laying low while Copley erased their headline-making actions, and protecting Andy while she healed, the group had stayed together in the three bedroom flat. Nile stayed in what used to be Booker’s room. Thankfully, he hadn’t been the type to leave many mementos of his presence. 

Dinner was the only thing that was truly done together. Andy, when not teaching Nile, was of the habit of disappearing for hours at a time, but she always wandered back by dusk. The first time Nile had offered to help with dinner, Joe had just chuckled and poured her a glass of wine. 

“It needs time to breathe,” Nicky had admonished him from where he was chopping vegetables. 

“It’s a cheap bottle from Whole Foods.” Joe kissed him on the cheek as he went back to the stove, Nile holding her glass of wine in the doorway. “It’ll breathe in the glass.” 

Nile took a sip and went back to her book in the living room. 

2  
\---

The second time Nile offered to help with dinner was the day Andy taught her to crash-land a plane. She had caught on quickly to the mechanics of it the week before but hadn’t been ready for Andy’s impromptu lesson today. 

“Boss you gotta reverse whatever you did, this is not going to end well!” Nile shouted from the pilots seat, Andy chuckling beside her. The plane was plummeting towards the ground, listing side to side as Nile fought to keep the winds steady. 

“You’re going to have to figure it out! If we don’t land this I won’t make it!” Andy shouted back. 

“This is not an effective lesson!” Nile shot back. 

The plane ended up safely landed on the airstrip, though the tarmac and the nose of the plane had taken a substantial amount of damage. Nile sat panting for a moment, in shock. Andy socked her on the shoulder playfully. 

“That was great kid.” Her voice was dry. “I’m alive and ready for dinner.” Nile looked at her copilot in disbelief and said, not for the first time,

“You’re insane.” 

By the time they got back to the apartment, the smell of cooking food was wafting through the rooms. The windows were open and an operetta that Nicky loved could be heard playing softly. The volume grew as Nile walked through the apartment. She heard Andy open the door to the balcony as she stuck her head in the kitchen. 

“You guys need any help with dinner?” 

Nicky was stirring something on the stove humming, Joe stood at his shoulder as he added spices, his arm wrapped around Nicky’s waist and head lazily on his shoulder. They both turned towards her, though Joe really only turned his eyes. Their corners crinkled as he took her in. 

“Andy teach you to crash-land?” Nicky put her dusty and sweaty appearance together with today’s lesson quickly.

“Yeah,” Nile said on the exhale. 

“Well clearly you passed. Unless Andy isn’t with you?” Joe joked. 

“On the balcony.” 

“Great!” Joe released Nicky to add pasta to a pot of boiling water. “Then you have just enough time to shower before dinner.” 

Nile nodded and paused at the door before leaving. Joe was now tossing a salad as the operetta moved into the next movement. Nicky flicked the burner off and sang softly to Joe, advancing on him slowly. While Nile couldn’t see Nicky’s expression or hear him over the speaker, she could see Joe’s smile grow as Nicky drew closer and finally kissed him softly. Joe stopped tossing the salad, a single piece of lettuce floating to the floor as he closed his eyes. 

Nile left without a word. 

3  
\---

Nile felt the bullet bite into her shoulder. It hurt the same every time, but now it was more like a familiar burn than a surprising hurt. She spun and shot the assailant in the knee. He screamed as he fell, but it was cut short by Joe shooting him in the head as he rounded the corner. 

“This wing is clear,” Nile ground out as the bullet worked its way out of her shoulder. 

“Feeling vindictive?” Joe asked casually, gesturing to the dead man with a shattered kneecap at his feet. 

“It was my firing arm, my aim was off.” 

“Yeah huh,” Joe said doubtfully, looking at her with doe eyes. Nile rolled her eyes as she took the dead man's gun and checked that it was loaded. 

“Don’t give me that look.” 

“What look?” Joe asked innocently. 

“The look you give Nicky when he says he’s not going to get gelato at the grocery store.” 

They moved back into the base together, Joe covering her back. Nile felt more at ease with him despite the danger of the situation. Incredible how eight months with someone and a few past death experiences can bond you. It was only because she was listening for it that she heard.

“I don’t have a look.” 

Nile shook her head but didn’t bother to reply as they wound their way through the simple base. In their ear pieces they heard Andy. 

“We’ve found the kids, south is clear.” 

“Still finishing north, stand firm,” Nile responded as they rounded a corner. 

Immediately gunfire erupted. Nile stepped back behind the corner they had just rounded in concert with Joe. He fumbled with something on a harness for a moment before producing a flash bang and tossing it around the corner. Nile covered her ears; the bang still caught her off guard. She and Joe stepped around and began firing, Nile stepping aggressively into the fray while Joe picked off the ones she left behind. 

There were more men than they had anticipated and Nile could feel sweat gathering at her brow, every sense straining to stay in step with Joe behind her. When her ammo ran out she continued with a pair of long knives that Nicky had found for her, the double-sided blades widening slightly before the tip. The lack of gunfire behind her indicated that Joe had switched to his blade as well.

With a vicious upswing through her assailants belly, the hallways finally grew quiet. Running footsteps could be heard from around the bend in front of them and Nile crouched for another round. Andy and Nicky came around the corner just as the groaning man at her feet lunged, catching her off balance. She slammed to the ground and he got off a single shot before Nicky’s sword protruded through his chest. 

“What happened to stand firm?” Nile asked from the floor, taking Andy’s proffered hand to drag herself up. Andy was about to answer when there was a thud down the hallway. Joe had collapsed, his hands red with the blood that soaked the front of his shirt. Nicky didn’t make a sound but was by him in seconds, cradling Joe’s lolling head in his hands. He took deep breaths as he pressed his forehead against Joe’s, knocking the man’s baseball hat out of place. Nile looked away as Andy pulled Nicky’s sword from the body. Nile produced a cloth as an excuse to give Nicky his privacy in the long seconds it took for Joe to come gasping back to life. If Nicky let out a breath that was more like a sob, neither of the women would comment on it.

“Nicoló? Do I? Do I have a gelato face?” 

Nile huffed and rolled her eyes in disbelief, turning back to the couple as Andy snorted and cleaned the sword. 

“What are you talking about?” Nicky looked, to his credit, confused but along for the ride. 

“Nile told me that I made a face when I wanted gelato. I thought she wasn’t telling the truth before she let that man shoot me,” Joe explained simply as Nicky helped him up. 

“Oh for God’s sake, that is not how it went down,” Nile objected. 

“I don’t know, that’s what it looked like to me…” Joe spread his arms. “I guess you owe me one.” 

“I’ll make dinner when we get back,” Nile said sarcastically. “Don’t we have some kids to save?” 

“We will make dinner when we get home,” Nicky said decisively, letting the hand that was on Joe’s shoulder drop as he took the sword back from Andy. “And yes, you have a gelato face.” 

Joe looked betrayed as Nicky walked away and Andy laughed while Nile snapped her fingers at Joe. 

“Told you!”

“Well it wouldn’t be a problem if he would just buy the gelato,” Joe grouched. 

4  
\---

“Joe and I couldn’t speak to each other for the first few years, so we cooked,” Nicky remarked one night as they cleaned their guns. The TV was turned so low it was just background noise and up until that point he and Nile had sat in compatible silence. Nile had been surprised at how well they got along, their relationship was mostly built on shared glances over Joe’s antics of Andy’s angst. 

They were in Greece, nine months after Nile had joined them, laying low after another successful mission in Boston. Joe and Andy had gone out to get food, the four of them too tired and jet lagged to consider any other option. 

“In a way, it was the first language we learned to speak together.” He didn’t take his eyes off of the TV. “We had spent so long killing each other that giving each other life was -- cathartic.” 

“Were you guys a couple then?” 

“No.” Nicky chuckled softly. “It took us a very long time to be how you know us now. No, at that time we were just trying to prove to each other that our lives mattered to the other. His well being was important.” He stopped cleaning the handgun for a moment, lost in a memory. “I often joke that Joe wooed me with his cooking. Our first dance was a violent one, our second was around the fire.” 

Nile nodded thoughtfully. 

“So that’s why you only cook together, it’s your thing.” 

“Booker used to help,” Nicky began cleaning again. “Andy stopped after Quyhn. Then, Booker was too sad to create, I think.” 

“I never thought about it like that,” Nile admitted. 

“Food is a language of love, it is difficult to use when it is difficult to love.”

“And here I thought Joe was the poet.” Nicky laughed at Nile’s ribbing.

“We are old Nile, I was once a chivalrous knight sent to destroy the heretics that turned out to be my Yusuf.”” He turned and raised an eyebrow. “You should know, you’ve seen Andy with technology.” 

Nile laughed in agreement.

“She can wield an axe like no one I’ve seen, but give her an iPad and she’s lost.” 

Nicky smiled. 

“You should’ve seen her when cars were invented.”

“Stop. You have to tell me now.” 

5  
\---

They were in Brazil, stuck inside as rain poured down. It felt as if they were stuck in a waterfall. Most of the books in this flat were in Portuguese, a language Nile had yet to master, and the TV was completely out of commission. She tapped her foot against the worn wooden floor lazily as she looked out the window. 

“It’ll be dinner time soon,” Joe remarked, not looking up from the book he was reading on the sofa next to her. Nicky, dozing with his head in his lap, hummed noncommittally. 

“I can run out and grab something,” Andy offered and Joe shook his head, still reading. 

“No, I’ve got things here I can make something out of. You rest boss.” Nicky did not offer a noise of agreement this time, though somehow managed to convey so through his body language. Andy was laying on a cot in the corner, having been wounded in their latest mission. No long-term damage, but enough that they hadn’t left the country immediately. This mission had been more difficult than the others they’d undertaken with Nile. Not all of the people they had hoped to reach had survived, and Nile dared anyone to trek through the Amazon for two weeks and not be exhausted on the other side. 

“I could make some tres leches,” Nile offered. “It was my brother's favorite cake,” she said defensively when the others looked at her in surprise. “It’s not baklava but-” 

“No,” Andy interrupted. “That sounds great. Thank you Nile.” 

Nile got up and went to the fridge that Copley now made sure was stocked before they had arrived. While at first her limbs objected to the motion after weeks of mud and rain, she soon fell into a pleasant rhythm as she measured and stirred. A few minutes before the batter was ready for the oven, Nicky walked in to prepare the vegetables that Joe would be using. They worked silently but in sync, staying out of the other’s way while sharing the space compatibly. When Nile put the cake into the oven and set the timer, Joe walked in and embraced Nicky from behind, resting his head on the man’s shoulder. Nile left the two to their cooking.

+1  
\----

The group was finally back in the London flat that Nile had first settled into, and it felt like a homecoming of sorts. They had spent the last several months travelling and taking care of missions Copley had thrown their way. Last word from him was to lay low for the next several weeks, so the group was at last breaking up. Nicky and Joe planned to go to Malta together. Nile assumed there was some sort of inside joke about it, but Andy had just smiled knowingly when she'd asked. Nile had discovered that being friends with immortals meant that you asked what the inside joke was about quite often. Most times, she didn’t even bother to ask anymore. 

She wasn’t sure where Andy was going, but she had a sneaking suspicion that it might be somewhere in Northern Africa. Nile, with a credit card that Copley had falsified for her, was planning to wander for the first time in her previously very structured life. 

“Just keep your phone on you and we’ll meet back up at some point,” Andy had told her. 

“She won’t say it but it’s been a lot easier since cell phones were invented,” Joe joked and Andy grumbled. 

So tonight was their last night together for however long it would be. Nile supposed that being immortal eventually changed how long a day, month, or year felt, but for the moment she was excited to be leaving and sad to go. It helped to know they would find their way back to each other before too long. 

She and Andy were on the balcony sipping some wine as the boys cooked what was sure to be an opulent celebratory dinner. 

“You know today is your anniversary, right?” Andy remarked. She had her feet propped up on the railing and had tipped her chair back slightly. Nile was across the small table from her, both of them watching the sun begin to dip below the horizon. 

“Today exactly?” She asked.

“Yes,” Andy nodded and took a sip. “We first dreamed of you and you first dreamed of us a year ago today. Joe wrote it down in his book.” 

Nile had noticed Joe’s black leather bound book, and the similar books at different houses and apartments they had been to, but hadn’t remarked on them. 

“Does it feel shorter to you than it does to me?” She asked, leaning forward in her chair. Andy set her chair back on four legs as she considered the question. 

“I don’t know. When I was mortal, time hadn’t even been named, so I don’t know that I’ve ever understood how short or long something should feel.” She looked over at Nile. “I do know a lot has happened, and that you’ve changed our group for the better.” 

Nile held eye contact for only a moment before looking down at the glass in her hands. 

“Thank you.” 

“Thank you, Nile.” The pair sat in silence, looking out on the sunset for several more minutes. Then, from in the kitchen, came Joe’s voice.

“Hey Nile! Can you come chop this onion?” 

Nile stood and looked at Andy with a raised eyebrow. The woman didn’t meet her eye but snorted into her wine glass.

“Welcome to the club kid.”


End file.
